Grand Fir Shortbread

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 150˚C and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Put the fir needles and sugar into the bowl of a food processor and blitz until the needles are very finely chopped. Remove 2 tablespoons of the scented sugar and set aside.
3. Add the butter to the sugar in the processor and whizz at high speed until the mixture turns pale and creamy. Tip in the flour and pulse until it is incorporated and the mixture is beginning to clump together into a dough. Don’t be alarmed if it won’t quite form a ball in the processor – it means the shortbread will be beautifully crumbly.
4. Tear a sheet of baking parchment and tip out the mixture onto it. Use your hands to bring it together into a ball, and press it into a flat patty. Lay another sheet of parchment on top, and use a rolling pin to gently roll out the dough to a thickness of roughly 0.5cm.
5. Peel back the top sheet of parchment and stamp out cookies using your choice of cutter. Carefully lift the cookies with a palette knife off the bottom sheet of parchment and transfer them to the baking sheet. Gently press together the dough trimmings, roll again, and repeat until all the dough is used up.
6. Bake in the preheated oven for 25–30 minutes, or until light brown around the edges. Carefully transfer the cookies to a cooling rack (they will be quite fragile while warm) and sprinkle with the reserved fir sugar. Serve the cookies when cool and crisp.

Credits

Recipe and photos by Otherwise for Wild Food UK